They said your life will get easier. They said you won’t have to worry about pregnancy anymore. They said this could be the best time of your life. Enjoy it, they said. You won’t have to deal with premenstrual ups and downs. Now that you’re there, you realize menopause may not be all it’s cracked up to be. Now, when is it time to consider hormone replacement therapy?
Menopause: Once You’re There…
Once you’re there, you have different issues than the old irritability before your period followed by cramps. Those pesky hormones you have lived with for almost your whole life are changing yet again. Your old friends, estrogen and progesterone, are subsiding leaving you as out of sorts as before.
When those female sex hormones diminish, all kinds of wacky things happen. You need a way to balance them out, and that’s what hormone replacement therapy is meant to do.
Let’s look at some real life situations that tell you when it’s time to consider hormone replacement therapy.
Surprise, Surprise, Weight Gain
If you’ve kept your girlish figure into your 40s, that’s about to change. Many women experience weight gain especially in the tummy area.
As you age your metabolism slows, plus you experience a muscle mass decrease and a fat increase. There are many factors that also contribute to weight gain during and after menopause. Some include the following:
- Hormone fluctuation
- Insufficient sleep
- Having a family history of belly fat
Is It Hot in Here?
When you suffer with night sweats or hot flashes, it’s no joke.
Night sweats are sometimes considered intense hot flashes. You can wake up completely soaked to the skin, and night sweats can severely affect your ability to sleep and fall back to sleep.
Try to avoid things that can trigger a hot flash like spicy foods, tight clothing, smoking, caffeine, alcohol, and stress.
Talk to Right Choice Urgent Care about how Hormone Replacement Therapy can reduce or even eliminate these symptoms of menopause.
Uncomfortable Sex
Just what you need, right? This occurs when the walls of the vagina become thinner leading to dryness. As you lose estrogen, the clinical term, Vaginal Atrophy, makes the inside of the vagina dry, causes itching, and pain during sex.
Mood Swings
If you thought you had mood swings during your premenstrual cycle, this is a whole new ballgame. Many women suffer through serious mood swings as they approach menopause, known as perimenopause. This is a time major depression can affect you. Don’t hesitate to talk with Right Choice Urgent Care about your symptoms, especially if it’s impacting your mental health.
You Mean There’s More!?
As if these female issues weren’t enough, there are a few more effects of the hormonal fluctuation and loss of estrogen and progesterone during menopause.
- Insomnia
- Hair loss
- Urinary problems
- Decreased libido
- Loss of concentration
- Fatigue
A great percentage of women suffer from many of these symptoms. Hormone replacement therapy is the safest and most effective way to balance out your hormone levels and relieve many side effects of menopause.
Contact Right Choice Urgent Care at (281) 944-7900 to discuss hormone replacement therapy and which type is best for you. We offer HRT right in our urgent care clinic in Cypress, TX and are ready to help you get back to feeling like yourself.
